Photo by Whitehorse Star
Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm
Old Crow ushers in new era for First Nation education
The community of Old Crow came together Wednesday for a ceremony to mark a new era of education for their school under the First Nation School Board.
The community of Old Crow came together Wednesday for a ceremony to mark a new era of education for their school under the First Nation School Board.
The community voted to join the new school board last February.
Chief Zzeh Gittlit School is now moving to a child-centred model of public-school education, incorporating local First Nations ways into all aspects of learning and school life.
Attendees were encouraged to wear their traditional regalia to the ceremony, which was organized by the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, the First Nation School Board and Yukon First Nation Education Directorate.
Wednesday featured a mid-day ceremony and lunch at the school and an evening celebration with dinner and live fiddle music at the community hall.
“Almost half a century has passed since Together Today For Our Children Tomorrow affirmed the need for Yukon First Nations to regain control over the education our children,” said Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm.
“Today we celebrate a historic step toward this goal. The new First Nation School Board will play a key role in restoring Indigenous ways of educating young people that were intentionally broken by Canada’s residential school system.
“We want to give our children the education they need to thrive today, so that they may become strong, healthy, and balanced members of our communities,” Tizya-Tramm said.
“As they learn, they will be looking to the future, while following in the footsteps of their elders and ancestors before them.”
Melissa Flynn, the interim executive director of the First Nation School Board, called it “a great honour to be supporting our school teams, our students and our families in this transition.
“As changes in the schools will be implemented gradually, we are asking people to focus this year on strengthening their relationship to the community and relationship to the land.
“This ceremony allows just that, while bringing people together in a Yukon First Nations way.”
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Comments (13)
Up 0 Down 0
Hobo on Nov 9, 2022 at 4:13 pm
Good for them; now I wish they could have their own separate school. It would really benefit the FN students. The francophones do, why can FN?.
Up 5 Down 1
TheHammer on Nov 9, 2022 at 9:47 am
Old Crow is and always was an education all on its own. This is not a negative comment. Rather, a neutral observation. Don't let school interfere with your child's education.
Up 19 Down 1
Groucho d'North on Nov 8, 2022 at 9:45 am
It's all well and good that aboriginal culture and traditions are being taught in the new school framework, but will it help the students to live a better life? The reality is none of us know what the world will be like in 20 or so years when these students will be ejected from the school system and they will have to compete with other students for entry into university, trade schools and working careers. The K-12 school system is intended to prepare these students with the basic educational skills they will need to succeed in making a living they desire. The problem is: if the school system is not delivering these skills, the students cannot be recalled and upgradred like old software on a computer. The school system should be about preparing students for the future as the primary goal.
Up 13 Down 6
iBrian on Nov 7, 2022 at 7:50 am
Google this
-Rising Whale site at Cape Espenberg, Alaska. Finds of China/Korean origin dating 600AD and younger.
-Ming Dynasty from 1563 to 1620
— Within the imperial chambers of the Wanli Emperor cartographic craftsmanship unlike anything existing in Europe. “It was a multicolored world map mounted on a six-paneled folding screen. Which included west coast of North America, and detailed river basins of NOW Alaska, Yukon and BC to and around Vancouver island.
-http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/
-http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/
This is what happens you you sit at camp fires around the world. Knowledge from written history.
Up 22 Down 9
bonanzajoe on Nov 4, 2022 at 5:39 pm
@Resident: You need to study written history, not what was orally handed down.
Up 28 Down 8
bonanzajoe on Nov 4, 2022 at 5:37 pm
@iBrian on Nov 4.. Good comment. And true. But then, they don't want truth. Truth doesn't produce cheques.
Up 12 Down 24
Resident on Nov 4, 2022 at 1:20 pm
@iBrian
You need to put down the Dynasty Warriors fanfiction and touch grass.
Up 44 Down 11
iBrian on Nov 4, 2022 at 5:05 am
“As they learn, they will be looking to the future, while following in the footsteps of their elders and ancestors before them.”
Getting sick on this BS over glorification of the Asian culture.
We have been let down, and have let our children down by not addressing the issues in the schools correctly. But the woke crowd is the instituters. The school system is broken, all our kids have suffered major education loss from having special needs children in the same classroom as children who don’t need the assistance. I didn’t vote because it wasn’t one. The most racist native women ran the election in our community. You had to write your name on the ballot to vote!!! On what planet is that a secret voting system. Referendum was not needed. We needed to fix the system befor changing it. Having First Nations taking over a system they did not design, have taken billions in payout for being given a chance to learn to read/write and arithmetic.
So when are we getting to addressing the anti-white sentiment being pushed around by the FN?
Ever wonder why we are not finding more artifacts dating beyond 600 years ago????
Maybe because the Manchurian explorers hadn’t gotten here yet.
Zheng He Was a Chinese exposer who sailed up the now Yukon River and mapped upto the ancient inland ocean that is now Lake Lebarge, the Pelly River, also the Porcupine river. They settled in the Fort Selkirk area which is where the Chinese coins were found. Oh, that history has been hidden by the Woke leaders.
If only we could be equal.
Up 23 Down 8
bonanzajoe on Nov 3, 2022 at 9:20 pm
Good luck with that!
Up 21 Down 20
Yukoner1 on Nov 3, 2022 at 8:35 pm
@Josey Wales: the education system the way it is has failed Indigenous Peoples and has been failing them since residential school, up to today. Indigenous graduation rates are atrocious. I agree with you that segregation isn't generally a good idea, but it's not like the Yukon government has been excelling here. Not to mention, the Catholics and French have their own school board. I don't see you protesting that fact?
Up 37 Down 16
Juniper Jackson on Nov 3, 2022 at 7:16 pm
"restoring Indigenous ways of educating young people" and what would that be? I'd like to see that resume when some of those youngsters want to be negotiators for the World Trade Board, or Researchers at some Cancer Research Institute.
Good luck to you folks. You have chosen this path, to segregate yourselves and future generations, from the rest of the world. It might be successful, time will not tell if it fails your youth. I don't believe any FN would admit that.
Are these FN getting their own school? I hope so. I would have to move my children out of a school devoting classroom time to teaching how to skin a porcupine, to a school with a more modern, world view, teaching Economics, Mathematics, and even basic skills, keyboarding, writing code. Perhaps the FN are going to be given their own classrooms, outdoor tents? beside and inside the present system? In this instance, won't the classrooms need to be bilingual? Southern Tutchone? and French? The French were the first ones here. Or is this entire thing ONLY in Old Crow? 99% of the school children there are FN.
In any case.. as a taxpayer, I'm paying for this too right?
Up 75 Down 17
Max Mack on Nov 3, 2022 at 3:20 pm
"Indigenous ways of educating young people".
So, forget reading, writing, math, science or anything remotely resembling preparation for a productive occupation. Wonder how that is going to work out?
Meanwhile, the upper crust will send their children south to get an education?
Up 66 Down 18
Josey Wales on Nov 3, 2022 at 3:07 pm
Wow...Rosa Parks just wanted a better seat on a bus, not her own transit system?
Fast forward 50 years, an entirely segregated just for us school system.
Nothing says unity like segregation.
Congratulations on taking hold of your own destiny.
If it all fails, not inferring it will...but if so?
Who are y’all going to seek out for traditional compensation?